Shoreside

I remember as a child being at the beach in North Carolina, where my family seemed to visit every year or so in the summertime, and being told a story of visiting the beach in the winter and there being snow on the ground. To my young mind, this did not make sense. I only pictured beaches with hot weather and white sand, not with cold wind and ice. Eventually, it made enough sense to me, but I still had gone all my life without having ever seen a beach with snow on it, like in the story. So we decided to visit the lake during winter. It's no Carolina, but it has beaches and water and from photos I'd seen online, spectacular ice formations where waves usually form during warmer months.
The kids threw ice chunks out onto the frozen lake. Of course. What else are you gonna do out there?







Cocoon of something... Not sure what. Maybe a monarch that never hatched, judging by all the milkweed, but maybe they cocoon in Mexico??? Thank you Facebook friend - this is a praying mantis egg case. Yay!
Aleks is currently missing two teeth on the lower set. It's cute.
Bastian wanted to bring ice home. I told him that it probably had seagull poop in it and that I'd rather not.
The city. I think I'm officially a naturalized citizen.